By visiting the petition and adding your name, you will join us in telling Representatives Cantor and Smith that we believe archaeological research matters and should be funded by the US Government. But we need you to do more than just sign this petition: in order for this effort to be successful, we need you to take this petition into your own communities. Share it with the people who visit your museums, who you engage with through your research, or who volunteer at your labs. Post it on Facebook and Twitter and send it out through email, and let the communities you work with know how publicly funded research supports the work that you do, and how that work, in turn, benefits them.

We also want to draw your attention to a similar petition drive being led by our colleagues at the National Humanities Alliance. The National Endowment for the Humanities is also facing proposed budget cuts of 49 percent, and the National Humanities Alliance has begun a campaign to petition Congressional leaders. We encourage you to support their cause, since NEH funding has been a critical source of funding for historical archaeology projects, as well.

Related Posts

COME TO PRESERVATION ADVOCACY WEEK IN WASHINGTON, DC! (Feb 3, 2015) Society for Historical Archaeology members are invited to join the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) and Preservation Action for Preservation Advocacy Week, March 2-4, 2015! Preservation Action and NCSHPO organize ...

Historical Archaeology in a Changed Climate (Dec 26, 2014) The effects of a changed global climate are proving to be the largest and most daunting challenge facing the Earth’s inhabitants. Rapidly melting Arctic ice, the increased ferocity of ever more frequent storms, coastal flooding, vanishing islands, ...

SHA Storms the Hill! (Jul 14, 2014) The government affairs update in May included a long list of issues being pursued and monitored by SHA and its government relations counsel Cultural Heritage Partners. To ensure that key members of Congress know about SHA and its priorities, ...

The issue of NSF funding is certain to re-emerge with the end of the government shutdown, and it raises bigger questions about how we articulate the value of historical archaeology beyond our scholarly circles. The SHA needs your help on both counts documenting the value of NSF-funded historical archaeology research. We want to underscore specific social and economic values of historical archaeology that need to be articulated to members of Congress and the general public.

Today a form is posted on the SHA Blog that asks you to provide us some specific examples of the value of NSF-funded historical archaeological research. The form asks for

a description of your project;

a description of the specific thing your project taught us about the past; and

how your project directly benefited your career, your institution, and most importantly, the community or communities associated with your project – socially and economically.

Instead of providing talking points to legislators and people who are interested in archaeology, we would prefer to provide them concrete examples of the benefits of what historical archaeologists do, especially with the taxpayers’ money. If we do not make stronger cases for all the ways historical archaeology shapes communities financially and socially we risk having others misrepresent the discipline.

We will have a Saturday lunchtime session at the January SHA Conference that will identify an action plan for engaging the US Congress and the public on why archaeology matters and the importance of NSF and other federal funding. I will report back on that on the SHA Blog in the next couple of weeks, but I certainly hope all of you who can make it to the meeting will join us.

These are simply first steps toward effectively sharing our scholarship beyond historical archaeology circles. Some of this communication needs to be with legislators and their staffs, many of whom have never met a historical archaeologist and simply need to know what we do. Some of this discussion also needs to be for our public constituents who support heritage preservation and are interested in sharing the research their taxes made possible. The SHA has been firmly committed to public archaeology for much of the past half-century, so we have laid a solid foundation.

Related Posts

Historical Archaeology at George Washington’s Mount Vernon (Mar 3, 2015) Greetings from Virginia! Though the #SHA2016 Annual Meeting is some months away, we are assisting the social media committee in presenting the archaeological outlets that the Washington, DC metro area has to offer. Archaeology plays a major role ...

#SHA2015: Using Social Media at the SHA Conference (Jan 5, 2015) Over the past few years, SHA has built an online presence through the use of social media, and it began within the conference committee. With the addition of the blog, and the society’s developing use of Twitter and Facebook, we want to ...

Many of you know that Representatives Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) last week published a piece in USA Today advocating tighter controls of National Science Foundation funding. Their piece seized on several archaeological research projects as symptomatic examples of ill-conceived scientific research priorities. Representatives Cantor and Smith did not single out historical archaeology, but their aim is squarely on social sciences, and many historical archaeologists have been fortunate to receive NSF support. NSF funding has significantly impacted the discipline, transformed many scholars’ careers, and supported many archaeological projects benefitting communities throughout the country.

Today the SHA has written Cantor and Smith responding to their piece in USA Today. Cantor and Smith’s piece is perhaps a rhetorical assault on social sciences, but some legislators are intent on radically changing the NSF in particular, if not all federal funding of the sciences. The potential for such changes at the highest levels of federal funding could have dramatic effects on historical archaeology.

SHA’s INVITE YOUR LAWMAKER DAY IS AUGUST 20! (Aug 7, 2014) Congress’ summer recess is underway! August is a great time to invite federal, state and local lawmakers to visit sites and projects, and to learn about the importance of cultural heritage education and preservation. It is also a chance for us to ...

Meet a Member: Paul Avery (Jul 27, 2014) Over the coming months, we’ll be bringing you entertaining interviews with a diverse array of your fellow SHA members. Meet a member for the first time or learn something about a colleague that you never knew before. This blog series also ...

SHA Social is the social home for the Society for Historical Archaeology. Join us by subscribing via our RSS feed or email to receive the most recent post about historical archaeology and the SHA. Be a part of the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to interact, network, and receive updates about the latest in historical archaeology.